AKUATROP Activitiesakuatrop.umt.edu.my/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2014/06/Annual-Report-2012e.pdfAKUATROP Activities AKUATROP ORGANIZED WORKSHOP ON PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND RESEARCH

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AKUATROP Activities

AKUATROP ORGANIZED WORKSHOP ON PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND RESEARCH STRATEGIC PLANNING TOWARDS HiCoE ACCREDITATION AKUATROP is one of the centre of excellence which is proactive in doing research activities and courses in aquaculture field and aims to be a Regional Reference Centre in this field in the future. In line with the appointment of the new Director, AKUATROP has organized a workshop namely the Workshop On Performance Evaluation And Research Strategic Planning Towards HiCoE Accreditation on 1

st to 3

rd March 2012

at Hotel Grand Continental , Langkawi, Kedah. The objectives of this workshop were to evaluate the work performance for 2011 (previous year) and ways of improvement in order to achieve better performance for the coming years. Besides, AKUATROP has decided its research focus and niche area which were tropical aquaculture and breeding technology. As a conclusion this 2 days’ workshop showed that AKUATROP’s research directions are well planned to achieve HiCoE status and producing excellence graduates in aquaculture field.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mhd Ikhwanuddin Abdullah delivered his guideline to the participants and led the discussion

during the 3 days workshop at Hotel Grand Continental, Langkawi, Kedah.

AKUATROP staffs during the workshop on Performance Evaluation and Research Strategic Planning towards

HiCoE Accreditation.

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WORKSHOP ON ‘FAIL MEJA’ AKUATROP 2012

Institute of Tropical Aquaculture (AKUATROP) has successfully organised a workshop on ‘Fail Meja’ AKUATROP 2012 at Bilik Gerakan HEPA, Kompleks Siswa during 29 Mei 2012. This workshop was attended by AKUATROP Management and Professional (P&P) and supporting staff. This workshop aimed to expose the staff to the right format of preparing and updating their job descriptions and scope in Fail Meja. This one-day workshop began with the opening ceremony by the AKUATROP’s Director, Prof. Dr. Anuar Hassan, followed by a talk on Fail Meja (FM) by the guest speaker, Mrs. Zuraifah Mamat, Auditor of Vice-Chancellor Office. During this workshop, a few files were selected and reviewed by Mrs Zuraifah to make sure that the staff prepared the files according to the right format and procedure. As a conclusion, this workshop has created a positive impact among staff in which they have updated their work procedures and the work process will be more systematic and efficient.

Mrs. Zuraifah Mamat, Auditor of Vice-Chancellor Office delivered her knowledge and experience to the

participants during the workshop.

WORKSHOP ON INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTOLOGY EQUIPMENTS AND TECHNIQUES

Histology Aquatic Laboratory is one of the new laboratory units created under the Aquatic Organisms and Health Unit, AKUATROP to fulfill particular needs in the field of aquaculture research. Therefore, various tools related to research involving histology were purchased using a special budget allocation from the Ministry of Higher Education. Histology Aquatic Laboratory is the third histology laboratory in Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. The lab was created to assist researchers and students in their study. Besides, this laboratory was established to help AKUATROP in acquiring the High Center of Excellence (Hi-CoE) status. This workshop was held successfully on Thursday 13 September, 2012 at the Histology Aquatic Lab, AKUATROP. This event was a joint venture between AKUATROP and Leica Malaysia, Histocentre Malaysia (M) Sdn. Ltd.

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The objective of this workshop is to train researchers, staff and students in handling equipments for histological research purpose. A total of 15 participants involving staff and students participated in the workshop. The training was delivered by Mr. Chua Eng Siong and Mr. Azly Nor Aliff Bin Hamdan from Leica Malaysia which brought Histocentre (M) Sdn. Ltd. There were no financial implications during the workshop took place as the cost of foods has been sponsored by the Histocentre Company (M) Sdn. Ltd.

Figure 1: Training on histology equipments peformed by Mr. Chua Eng Siong (Leica Malaysia) and

Mr. Azly Nor Aliff bin Hamdan (Histocentre (M) Sdn. Ltd).

ACADEMIC VISIT FROM STUDENTS OF SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEBANGSAAN ISMAIL PETRA, KOTA BHARU, KELANTAN

Institute of Tropical Aquaculture (AKUATROP) is a

research centre specialised in aquaculture. As a

centre of knowledge, AKUATROP warmly receives

visits from numerous agencies which are interested

to gain experience and knowledge in our research

field. This gesture is hoped to encourage people to

get involved in the aquaculture industry and aquatic

science.

This was further proven when on 30th

of October

2012, AKUATROP accepted a visit from 120 students

and teachers of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan

Ismail Petra, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The school chose

to visit AKUATROP in order to give a realistic

experience in science stream environment to the

students and at the same time to attract students to

the science subject in school. During the visits, the

students were informed about the aquaculture and

aquatic science research conducted in AKUATROP by

our Fisheries Officers.

The students were also brought to the Marine

Hatchery and Laboratories in AKUATROP and were

given the opportunity to try out the advanced

equipments in the laboratories. At the same time,

the students were given an opportunity personally

communicated with PhD and master students in AKUATROP.

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ATTACHMENT AT BATAVIA COAST MARITIME INSTITUTE, DURACK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGIES, GERALDTON, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Once in three years officers were given an opportunity to improve their skill and seek new knowledge. For this year, Gusti Afiz Bin Gusti Ruslan Noor was the lucky person to get the chances to work at Durack Institute of Technology, Western Australia, from 8

th till 21

th November 2012.

Durack Institute of Technologies is a great institute for local community at Geraldton. It has many divisions for different study. Batavia Coast Maritime Institute is a division for aquaculture and marine study. Batavia Coast Maritime Institute is led by DR SURESH JOB as the director and DR. MICHEAL CHEAH as a senior lecturer. This institute has many facilities related to the study such as hatchery and ponds. Most of the research here are focused on fish and aquatic life.

Figure 1: Visit to Fisheries Radio Control Station Geraldton. Basically, the main research here is focused on fish breeding especially in broodstock management. The focal fish species of this institute are ornamental fish (clownfish), Kingfish and Cobia. Apart from research, Batavia Coast Maritime Institute also plays it’s role to provide basic training to all levels of the industry related to the maritime community.

Figure 2: Fish broodstock in the Batavia Coast Maritime Institute Hatchery. 40kg Kingfish (left picture) and

50kg Cobia broodstock (right picture).

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Figure 3: Lecture given by Gusti Afiz during special seminar at Batavia Coast of Maritime Institute, Geraldton.

WORKSHOP ON FRESHWATER GIANT PRAWN BREEDING TECHNIQUES AKUATROP aspires to become one of the freshwater giant prawn seedstock producers in Malaysia with the

hope that it can be commercialised to generate income for the institute. To move towards the goal,

AKUATROP have organised "Freshwater Giant Prawn Breeding Workshop" to equip the staff with proficient

freshwater giant prawn breeding techniques.

On 21st

to 22nd

November 2012, the workshop was held with the help and guidance by Assoc. Prof. Aizam

Zainal Abidin. He was very generous during the workshop and shared his entire knowledge and experience

with the 25 participants, which consisted of 20 students and 5 staff.

The participants were given exposure during the theory class in the morning and the practical activities in the

afternoon. In the hatchery they were divided into 5 groups and each group was provided with a nursery tank

and broodstock. Each group was entitled to maintain the broodstock until the larvae were released and were

consequently cultured until the Postlarvae (PL) stage. As a requirement to complete the practical knowledge,

the training were sustained for a month until the

larvae had successfully molted to the marketable PL

stage. At the end of the workshop, all participants

were able to produce the seed up to PL stages, and

their month-long hard works and dedication were

acknowledged by the director of AKUATROP through

certifications.

It is hoped that this workshop would be the

fundamentals in transforming AKUATROP into the

main freshwater giant seed producer in Malaysia.

Berried female of freshwater giant prawn were used in the practical session.

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Larvae of freshwater giant prawn image captured under advanced microscope.

Postlarva (PL) of freshwater giant prawn successfully breed by the participants during the workshop.